Expatica news

‘No coincidence’ CIA plane landed at Antwerp

10 March 2006

BRUSSELS — The CIA plane that passed through Belgium in 2002 did not land on two occasions at Deurne Antwerp by coincidence, it was claimed on Friday.

“In both cases, the plane did not land by coincidence at Deurne; it did not land to refuel and continue its journey; the plane landed on the short runway of the airport — which is rarely used — because ‘people’ wanted to be there,” newspaper ‘Le Soir’ reported.

On 17 July 2002, a Gulfstream III plane from the US landed at Deurne before flying onto the UK. On 20 July, the plane came from Germany and landed at Deurne before flying to the Netherlands.
 
According to the French-language newspaper, one only has to look at a map to realise the landing at Antwerp was not for technical reasons.
 
Three months later, the same plane was involved in the illegal transfer of the detainee Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was arrested at the JFK airport in New York. He was transferred to Jordan and later to Syria.

The Gulfstream plane that passed through Deurne also flew to Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and has crisscrossed Europe since 2002, flying through Milan, London, Amsterdam and Groningen.

Cynthia D. Logan, one of the 22 CIA agents accused of an abduction in February 2003 in Milan has been in Belgium on two occasions, namely November and December 2003. On each occasion, she travelled from Frankfurt and onto Washington.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]

Subject: Belgian news